New evacuations ordered in South Carolina as Florence rainfall raises river levels

A new round of evacuations was ordered in South Carolina Friday as the trillions of gallons of water dumped by Hurricane Florence meanders to the sea, raising river levels and threatening more destruction.

With the crisis slowly moving to South Carolina, emergency managers ordered about 500 people to flee homes along the Lynches River. The National Weather Service said the river could reach record flood levels late Saturday or early Sunday.Shelters are open.

Florence is blamed for at least 43 deaths in the Carolinas and Virginia, including that of an 81-year-old whose body was found in a submerged pickup truck in South Carolina. More than half the dead were found in vehicles.

Officials downstream sounded dire alarms, pointing out the property destruction and environmental disasters left in Florence's wake.

"Although the winds are gone and the rain is not falling, the water is still there and the worst is still to come in the Pee Dee," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said Friday, referring to the eastern part of the state.

McMaster on Thursday estimated damage from the flood in his state at $1.2 billion US, characterizing it in a letter to state congress members as the worst disaster in the state's modern history.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said he knows the damage in his state will add up to billions of dollars, but said with the effects on the storm ongoing, there was no way to make a more accurate estimate.

In Cooper's state on Friday, environment concerns were raised after an energy utility spokesperson said that a dam containing a large lake at Wilmington power plant has been breached by floodwaters, with potential for coal ash from an adjacent dump to be loosed into the Cape Fear River.

'Developing situation' at N.C. power station

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center said it was monitoring four areas in the Atlantic for signs of a new tropical weather threat. One was off the coast of the Carolinas with a chance of drifting toward the coast.

About 55,000 homes and businesses remain without power after Florence, nearly all in North Carolina, and down from a high of more than 900,000 in three states.

On the Cape Fear River, Duke Energy said Friday that a dam containing a large lake at Wilmington, N.C. power plant has been breached by floodwaters from Florence, and it's possible coal ash from an adjacent dump is flowing into the water.

Duke spokesperson Paige Sheehan said water is flowing atop an earthen dike at the north side of Sutton Lake, a 445-hectarereservoir at the L.V. Sutton Power Station.

Sheehan said floodwaters also had overtopped a steel retaining wall containing one of three large coal ash dumps lining the lakeshore. Sheehan described the incident as a "developing situation" and said the company can't rule out that ash might be escaping and flowing into the river.

Grey material that the company characterized as lightweight coal combustion byproducts could be seen Friday floating on the top of the lake.

Animal waste in floodwaters

The ash left over when coal is burned to generate electricity coal ash contains an array of components, including mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic heavy metals. The inundated basin contains at the plant 400,000 cubic yards of ash.

The current incident is separate from the rupture at a nearby coal ash landfill reported at the site last weekend, which spilled enough material to fill 180 dump trucks.

Santee Cooper in South Carolina, a state-owned utility, is placing an inflatable dam around a coal ash pond near Conway, saying the extra 76 centimetres should be enough to keep floodwaters out. Officials warned human, hog and other animal waste were mixing in with floodwaters in the Carolinas.

The storm continues to severely hamper travel. Parts of the main north-south route on the East coast, Interstate 95, and the main road to Wilmington, Interstate 40, remain flooded. They will likely be closed at least until nearly the end of September, according to North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon.

In Conway, some drivers have reported it has taken three hours or more to make it across the city of 23,000 people because of flooding from the rising Waccamaw River. Only a few roads are open after the closing of affected bridges.

Forecasters expect the Waccamaw to swell nearly a metre (three feet) above the previous record crest. Some areas could stay underwater for weeks, they warned.

'Things are always changing'

In North Carolina, a familiar story was unfolding as many places that flooded in Hurricane Matthew in 2016 were once again inundated.

Two years ago, flooding ruined the baseboards and carpet of the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Spring Lake.

This year, water from the Little River water broke the windows, leaving the pews a jumbled mess. Soaked Bibles and hymn books were scattered on the floor.

"I'm so sad just thinking about all the work we put in. My gut is turning up," church member Dennis DeLong said. "We put a lot of heart and soul into putting it back up."

Lumberton homeowner Kenneth Campbell said he found at least 30 centimetresof water in his one-storey home when a friend took him into his flooded neighbourhood on a boat Tuesday.

"The water was right above my floors."

Campbell's house also flooded during Hurricane Matthew, and he hadn't expected to face the prospect of rebuilding two years later. Asked whether he thought his home and flood insurance would offer enough this time to rebuild, or if he would need further government assistance, he said he wasn't sure.

"That's hard to say," he said, in a lowvoice. "Things are always changing."